Proposals and Problems
by Rainy Mondayx
Summary: Seth loses Summer's engagement ring and just can't seem to find it. Taylor refuses to move in with Ryan, despite his desperate attempts. Seems like everyone's having problems these days.
1. Chapter 1

Seth was panicking.

Freaking out would probably be a more accurate term.

He couldn't believe this. He could not believe what was going on. He need a paper bag or something. He was five seconds away from hyperventilating.

The ring…it was gone.

Oh, he was going to cry.

He sat down on the floor, too freaked out to get any closer to the bed to actually sit on something comfortable. He decided to look underneath the bed one more time.

He lifted up the floral (he still argued about the floral bedspread with Summer but she thought it was 'pretty' and didn't care if it wasn't 'manly'--she argued he wasn't man enough to have a manly bedspread) bed skirt and looked underneath the bed. He promptly put it back down at seeing the amount of crap that he had shoved under there when he was 'cleaning' for Summer. It definitely wasn't there.

He leaned against the bed, closing his eyes. He was screwed. He had spent so much freakin money on that ring--just the ring that Summer wanted--and now it was gone.

Life sucked sometimes.

He was trying to retrace his steps. He had brought it out to show Ryan last night when he had been over and Summer had been out with Taylor. He could have sworn he had put it right back. How could it have disappeared in 24 hours?

Well, Summer was always saying that they had some sort of gremlin or something due to the alarming amount of disappearing articles of clothing (Seth claimed that it was their downstairs neighbor, who had some sort of fixation with the color red and shiny things). Now, apparently, these supposed gremlins had moved onto more expensive things.

He was trying so hard to figure out what happened to the ring that he didn't realize the bedroom door had opened up and Summer had come inside the room.

He turned to look at his girlfriend, who, now five months pregnant, looked absolutely beautiful.

"Summer. Hi."

She peered at him suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing. You know, just taking…a nap." Seth hated the fact that he failed at lying.

"Right. On the floor. Sitting up."

"Yep. You know…it's the latest craze in Paris…at least that's what Taylor told me." Seth winced at how horrible this lie was going. He didn't even believe what he had just said.

She just shook her head at him. She walked into their closet and started searching through the massive amounts of clothes on hangers. Before Seth even knew what was happening, clothes were randomly hitting him in the face.

"What the hell are you doing?" he questioned, shoving a shirt to the side.

"I have one dress that fits me. One dress and it's gone. I need it for tonight."

Seth gulped. Summer was going from nice, calm Summer to slightly scary, pissed off Summer. He wanted to avoid this as quickly as possible.

Plus, she had brought up tonight and it was making him feel awkward. He didn't want to think about the fact that he was supposed to propose tonight but now found himself completely ringless. It didn't help that he had told, oh, just about his whole family, who probably had, in turn, told everyone they knew that at the Christmas (his parents refused to refer to as Chrismukkah, as it caused them to get many questions when they received the invitations) party, he was going to propose to his pregnant girlfriend.

"Cohen, can you please stop sitting or napping or whatever you're doing and help me look? We can't go if I don't find this dress."

"You know, that's all right if we don't go." Seth was actually thinking it would be a relief if they didn't go. "If you're not feeling up to it or something." He could totally postpone his proposal this way.

"What do you not want to be seen with me or something?" She threw another shirt at him. "Am I really that fat?"

Seth groaned. Not this again. He had just had this discussion with her two nights ago. She, apparently, had forgotten that he had told her she was the most beautiful woman alive.

"No, no, Summer, you're absolutely beautiful. More beautiful than any other girl I've ever seen."

She looked at him. "So, you've been looking at other girls?"

He sighed. It was a losing game. He loved that he was going to have a baby with Summer, but really, this was not something he enjoyed at all. Anything he said was getting twisted into something. Next thing he knew, the tears were going to come.

He was already too late with that thought, considering he looked at Summer and she had already started crying.

"Summer, please don't cry. Please."

"I just want to find my dress."

"All right. I'll help you look for it. You go and sit down. And stop crying."

"I'll cry if I want too," she replied stubbornly, but took a seat on the bed.

He moved to their closet and started searching for a dress. "Is it this one?" he held up a black dress. He looked at it. He liked and kind of missed that dress. She looked really good in that one. He hoped that it was this dress.

She sighed. "No. There's no way I could fit into that now."

He tried not to look sad at this thought, considering it would probably piss her off even more. He threw the dress down and headed back into the closet.

"What does the dress look like?"

"It's red."

Seth stood up. Well. He already knew what happened to it. "Red. A red dress."

"Yes. I dry cleaned it with some other things and it's disappeared."

"Huh. Dry cleaned. And who picks up our dry cleaning for us?"

"Nick. I mean, he works there so it makes sense."

Seth shook his head. She totally wasn't catching on. "And what does Nick have an unusual fetish with?"

She shrugged. He just sighed.

"Red articles of clothing. And sparkly things."

"You've never proved that."

"Well, it's better than your gremlin theory. He took Mrs. Lee's wedding ring, don't you remember that?" He thought about this. Engagement rings were shiny. Nick liked shiny things. He was missing Summer's engagement ring. Hm…

"Yea, but he gave it back the next day."

"And he stole my red Death Cab shirt."

She rolled her eyes. "I threw that out."

"You what?!"

"I threw it out. It was disgusting and ratty."

"Summer…I cannot believe you." Suddenly, he wasn't sure he even wanted to get engaged, considering she threw out one of his most sacred articles of clothing.

"You have three others."

"But…my Death Cab shirt."

"Oh, get over it. Can we find my dress now?"

"Fine. I'm going to go prove that Nick does steal red and shiny things, even though my evil girlfriend is the cause of the disappearance of my favorite shirt."

"It's not your favorite."

"Oh, yes it is. Or was, since you threw it to the trash."

She just waved him out of the room. "Go find my dress."

Seth sighed, walking out of the room and apartment to go visit Nick. He knocked on Nick's door. Summer better appreciate what he was doing for her, because going to see Nick scared him a little. He always wanted Seth to see one of his cat statues (another obsession of Nick's) and quite frankly, the cat statues creeped Seth out. A lot.

"What do you want?" Nick peered at Seth. "Do you finally want to see my cat statues?"

"Oh, no, sorry, not today, Nick. I'm actually here on an order of business for my girlfriend."

"About what?" Nick looked a little frightened at the mention of Summer and Seth didn't really blame him. Summer had more or less attacked him the first day they had moved into the apartment, mainly because Nick had been trying to take something out of her purse (it had been red too, so Seth was still trying to understand why she didn't believe him about the red fetish).

"Her dress."

"What dress?" Nick questioned.

"The red one. Listen, we have a party to go to tonight and it's the only dress that fits her right now and we don't have time to go buy her a new one. Please tell me you have it."

Nick's eyes widened. "The red dress is hers?"

"Yes."

"I thought it was Mrs. Lee's!" Nick shut the door quickly in Seth's face.

He waited patiently and after a few minutes, Nick appeared, the red dress in hand. Seth sighed happily at the sight of it.

"Thank you." Seth hesitated. "I have another question."

"What?"

"Have you come across an…engagement ring recently?"

Nick shook his head. "Not since the incident with Mrs. Lee's wedding ring. I don't touch that stuff anymore."

Seth felt his hopes deflate even more. Now he officially had no clue where the ring had gotten to.

"Well, thanks for giving the dress back, Nick," Seth commented. "Hey…I have one more question."

"Yea?"

"What do you do with all of the clothes that you take?"

"Well, I--"

"Wait. I lied. I don't want to know. Talk to you later Nick."

Seth escaped before he got asked to see the cat statues again. He then realized he was eternally screwed because of the whole no ring thing. He was still going to the party, meaning he was going to have to propose due to his inability to keep a secret from anyone.

His night was looking more and more downhill with each passing moment.

* * *

Summer sat down at the table. She remembered when she and Seth had decided to not live in Newport, but instead live by his parents, how excited she had been to escape Newport parties.

She was really fooling herself with that thought. Apparently, it didn't matter where you lived, there were always Newspies of some sort.

Here she was, sitting at a party that she was only at because Kirsten was throwing it. It was on a smaller scale than the old Newport parties and the people were less snobby but it was still almost the same.

She didn't feel like jumping back out there and socializing at the moment. She was in a rather bad mood, due to the fact that Seth had been right about Nick's red thing--and she hated when Seth was right. He usually rubbed it in her face, but tonight he hadn't. He seemed really preoccupied with something. He wouldn't tell her what was going on, so that, in turn, put her in an even worse mood, as she had yelled at him. It had been pointless yelling, just about how he never trusts her with anything. They had stopped speaking to one another before the party had even started and now she felt horrible about it.

She glanced at him across the room. He was talking to Ryan, and she could tell from his actions that he was telling him something important. She wondered if he was sharing what was up with him. She tried to figure out what they were saying but they were too far away for her to hear or read lips. Well, she could at least try and interpret their actions.

Just then, Taylor walked in her line of vision. She looked at her best friend.

"Summer, do you have a tissue? Sophie needs one," Taylor said, gesturing to the seven year old who was clutching Taylor's hand.

Summer looked at her, an amused smirk on her face. "You got put on Sophie duty?"

"I volunteered. There's no way I want to be around Ryan right now."

Summer rolled her eyes. The two were constantly breaking up and getting back together or fighting. Tonight was a fight, from what Summer had heard, something about moving in together. She had paid little attention when Taylor had first told her. "Right. I'll look to see if I have a tissue."

She grabbed her purse from the back of her chair and opened it up. She saw a pack of tissues but got distracted by something else.

A velvet box. A velvet box that contained her engagement ring.

Summer looked up at Taylor, her eyes wide. "Taylor!"

"What? Do you not have tissues?"

"No, I do, but I…oh my God. Come to the bathroom with me."

"Are you all right?" Taylor questioned, suddenly concerned about the way Summer was acting. "You're kind of scaring me."

"Yea, no, I need to talk to you somewhere private."

Summer grabbed Taylor's arm and started dragging her along.

They got to the bathroom, which was across the room, in record time, mainly due to the fast pace that Summer had adopted. They got inside and she immediately made sure no one else was in the room.

"Taylor, I took the ring!" she exclaimed as soon as she was sure they were alone.

"What ring?"

"My engagement ring!"

Taylor's eyes widened. "How did you manage that?"

"Last night, remember how we accidentally found it in Seth's dresser when I was putting away the laundry? And then how he came in and I just threw it in the first thing I saw, which happened to be the purse that I brought tonight. I had meant to put it back after he went to bed, but I got really pissed off at him for some comment and I decided that I would just hold onto it. I was going to make him search for it and all, then put it back. I never put it back!"

"How could you not put it back??"

"I don't know. I just got caught up in so many different things today. Oh my God, he is going to kill me when he finds out."

"Okay, we need some sort of plan. He cannot know that you took it. I mean, he probably doesn't. He wasn't going to use it anytime soon, was he?"

"Yes, because I so know when my boyfriend is going to propose to me." Summer rolled her eyes. "I wasn't supposed to know in the first place!"

"Okay, this is what you're going to do--"

"Summer, can I have a tissue?" Sophie spoke up.

"Sure, sorry, Soph," Summer threw her purse at Sophie. She looked at the girl, realizing this probably wasn't the best conversation to have in front of her. "Why don't you go back out the party. You can take my purse with you."

"Okay." Sophie bounced out of the room, happy that she got to take a big girl purse with her.

"So what are we going to do?" Summer questioned.

"You're going to leave the party and go back to your apartment and put it back where you found it. That way, he'll never notice it was missing."

"You don't think he's realized that it's missing do you?"

Taylor shook her head. "It's Seth. He doesn't always notice things, so I think you're fine."

"I hope. You distract Seth to make sure he doesn't realize that I am temporarily leaving the party."

Taylor nodded. They walked out of the bathroom, going to find Sophie who still had the purse. They found her after only a few minutes, sitting at a table with her parents.

"Summer." Kirsten stood up to greet her, having not seen her yet. "How are you doing?"

"Great." Summer managed to muster up a lie, considering she was feeling horrible about the ring at the moment. "Uh, Sophie, do you still have my purse?"

"I put it on the table," Sophie said, pointing to where Summer had been before. "Mommy made me."

"All right. Thanks." Summer rushed away, not saying another word.

"What's up with Summer? Is everything all right?" Kirsten questioned Taylor. "She's acting a little…off."

"Yea, it's fine. It's all going to be good," Taylor replied. She was watching Summer who was now searching frantically through her purse. "I think."

Kirsten gave her a look, then followed her gaze. "What's going on?"

"Uh, nothing. I'll be back."

Taylor rushed over to Summer, who was in the midst of dumping the contents of her purse on the table.

"It's gone!"

"What's gone?"

"The ring…it's gone."

"How could it be gone? It was in there two minutes ago!"

"I know! How could it have disappeared?"

Taylor watched Summer start to go into freak out mode and realized that this probably wasn't good for her. "Okay, you need to calm down. Please. I don't want anything bad to happen."

"Something bad has already happened Taylor! I lost the ring!"

"It'll be okay. I'll go and retrace all of our steps. You sit. I'll go get Seth to bring you a glass of water."

"Don't tell him about the ring."

"Of course not."

Taylor walked away from her and Summer sat. She couldn't believe that she had lost the ring.

* * *

Seth didn't want to be at this party anymore. He wanted to go back to the apartment, tear it apart, and find the stupid ring.

Even though, at the moment, he and Summer weren't exactly speaking. She had argued with him about what he was hiding before the party had even started and had caused her to stop speaking to him. At least he had managed to avoid her crying at the moment, considering she was so angry at him.

He wanted to make up with her. He was watching her--in a total non-creepy way--and he felt bad. He really wanted that ring, because even though they were fighting, he still wanted to propose to her. Badly.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see his dad. "So, when's the big moment?"

"What big moment?"

"When is your proposal going to be? I have to tell the band so they can stop playing."

Seth gulped. "Uh, well…"

"You know I am really proud of you, son."

"For what?" Seth was confused for a minute, thinking he was talking about losing the ring. That was not something to be proud of. Then he realized he hadn't shared this with anyone, so his dad had to be talking about something else.

"For staying with Summer and for proposing to her. Your mother and I were a little skeptical when you first told us she was pregnant and that you weren't getting engaged right away--"

"Mainly because Summer told me she didn't want to get engaged just because she was pregnant. We…well, we already knew that we wanted to wait until the time was right."

"Well, we're both really proud of you. You two are doing the right thing."

Seth nodded. He couldn't tell his father that he lost the ring. He was going to have to propose to her without a ring. This was going to be interesting.

"Just tell me when you're about to do it," Sandy said before walking away.

Seth sighed. He wondered how Summer was going to react to the news that he lost her ring, when he did propose to her without one. He better make sure the couch was nice and warm.

"What's up, Seth?" Ryan walked over to him, talking a seat.

"I'm having a bad day. A really bad day."

"Nothing can be as bad as the fact that Taylor and I are arguing over moving in together. Again."

"Well, Ryan, I do believe my problem is bigger than yours considering I lost Summer's ring."

"Wait…you what?"

"I lost her engagement ring."

"I just saw it yesterday."

"I know. It's gone missing."

"So what are you going to do? You can't propose to her without it."

Seth sighed again. "I have to. My dad is all excited that I'm finally proposing to her and you know my mom is too. Why do I have such a big mouth?"

Ryan shrugged. "Because you're Seth and it would be weird if you didn't."

"Right. Well, now I have to find some way to propose to her and have it not be weird that I don't have a ring."

"I have a ring."

Seth raised his eyebrows. "Why in the world do you have a ring? Is there something you're going to do to that you're not telling me about?"

"No. Taylor and I had Sophie earlier today and we went to the store. She got a 25 cent ring. She didn't want to hold on to it, so I took it from her. I think it's still in my coat pocket." Ryan reached inside and pulled it out, a grin on his face. "Use this."

"So I'm just going to look like a cheap asshole then?"

"Hey. It's better than nothing."

"I guess you're right."

He took the ring from Ryan, putting it in his pocket. "I guess it's not that big of a deal if I lose this one."

"Well, you'd be screwed if you did."

"Thanks for that."

Taylor came running over to them, ignoring Ryan, who looked like he wanted to talk to her, turning right to Seth.

"Seth, Summer needs you to get her a glass of water. Please."

"Is she all right?"

"Uh…yea."

"That wasn't very convincing, Taylor," Ryan commented.

She glared at him, ignoring him. "She's fine. Just go over and talk to her all right? I have something I have to go do."

She rushed away from them. Seth shrugged, then went to get some water for Summer. He walked to her table, suddenly concerned. Ryan was right; Taylor hadn't been convincing. He wondered if there was something going on, if she was all right. He picked up his pace, trying to get to her as quickly as possible.

"Sum? Are you okay?" he placed the glass down and sat down in front of her.

"What? Oh. Yea. I' fine."

"That wasn't convincing. Taylor wasn't either."

"It's okay. I just…I freaked out to her about fighting with you."

He smiled at her. "I'm sorry we fought."

"Me too," she sighed. He thought something else was bothering her, but he knew not to push. He didn't want to get yelled at by her again.

"Fight over?"

"Fight over."

"Good." Seth kissed her. He was glad that they were done fighting. It made his night look brighter.

If only he could find the ring, it would be the greatest night ever.

* * *

Summer sat down, waiting for Seth to come over to her. She was trying to think of an excuse to tell him, of what to say to him when he came over. She didn't want to tell him that she had lost the engagement ring at the party. He would never want to marry her then.

She saw him walking towards her and she saw the look of concern on his face. She wondered if Taylor had somehow spilled about how she had lost the ring.

"Sum? Are you okay?"

She looked at him. He always looked so concerned about her. She responded to him, but apparently didn't convince him.

She realized that she hadn't thought of a good enough reason as to why she looked upset. She needed to come up with something, anything.

Fighting. That's the best thing she was able to come up with. She sighed, hoping he didn't realize how she was making this up. She was over their fighting a while ago, considering she now had bigger things to worry about.

He kissed her and she felt even guiltier. He was being so nice to her, thinking that she was all upset about their fight. She wished she would have never found the stupid ring.

She looked over Seth's shoulder and spotted Taylor. She was shaking her head and Summer realized that she hadn't found the ring.

She was pretty sure it was permanently lost.

She was so screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

One thing that Ryan had yet to figure out was why Taylor wouldn't move in with him. He had asked her time after time, and every single time, without fail, she had told him no. He didn't understand where this was coming from, why she was constantly rejecting him. It was becoming more of a problem than ever before.

He had even sneak attacked her today, with Sophie there. He had figured seeing Sophie there with him might convince her, considering she loved the little girl so much.

It had still been a no.

He wanted to spend the party thinking about this and what he could do to make her finally say yes. So far, though, he was spending it with Seth, who was freaking out about the ring being missing. Knowing Seth, it was probably in his pants' pocket. He was constantly losing things, only finding them later on, in rather obvious spot.

He sighed as he watched Seth go across the room to take care of Summer. She looked upset and he couldn't imagine how upset she was going to be when she found out that Seth lost the ring.

He craned his neck, looking for Taylor, who had just been there minutes before. She was searching the ground, looking a little foolish. He walked over to her, deciding that they needed to talk about everything.

"Taylor." He tapped her shoulder and she jumped a mile.

"Ryan!" Her eyes widened in shock. "Uh, I'm kind of busy right now…."

"Taylor, don't you think we should talk? I mean…."

"Now is not the time," Taylor replied, looking around his feet. "It is really not the time. I have to help Summer with something."

"With what?" He glanced over his shoulder in concern at Summer. Aside from looking a little upset, she seemed to be fine to him.

Taylor bit her lip, obviously not sure if she should say anything. It seemed to get the better of her after a minute, because, after all, she was Taylor and she did have a need to share everything with everyone. "Last night, Summer found an engagement ring from Seth. He came home and she shoved it in her purse and she just found it but then…then she lost it."

"Wait a minute…Summer has the ring? Seth's been looking for it all night," Ryan said. "We have to find that ring."

"Why has Seth been looking for it? How does he even know it's missing?"

"He's going to propose tonight, Taylor."

Her eyes widened. "You're kidding! Oh, this just made everything so much worse," she groaned, sitting down on the nearest chair. "Ryan, what are we going to do?"

"We're going to have to find the ring, I guess." Their problem could wait until later. He was going to sort it out, by the end of the night. He was determined to get Taylor to move in with him, no matter what it took.

"How come no one told me about Seth proposing?" Taylor questioned after the two were silent for a few minutes.

"You would have told Summer," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Taylor looked ready to protest this until she realized that it was most likely the truth. She sighed and stood up. They needed to find the ring.

* * *

Summer sighed, burying her head in Seth's shoulder. They were sitting down, having just finished eating dinner. Seth was jittery and nervous about something, but Summer had just brushed this off as how he normally acted.

She hadn't seen Ryan or Taylor in a while and she knew that they were searching everywhere for the ring. She had given up all hope of finding the ring. It was such a beautiful ring too.

She knew that she was going to have to break the news to Seth soon enough. He probably wouldn't want to marry her anymore. She wouldn't want to marry her.

She felt the tears well up in her eyes and she tried to fight them down. Seth would see and then he would ask questions and then she would have to tell him. She didn't want him to know yet, not when they were actually having a decent evening together.

Taylor rushed over to her side, grabbing her arm. "Uh, sorry, Seth, but I needed to steal Summer from you for just a minute."

She stood up, seeing the hopeful look in the Taylor's eyes. "Be right back, Seth." She wiped all traces of tears from her eyes as she followed Taylor into the bathroom.

Taylor pulled the box from her purse handed it to her. "Here…I found it finally."

"Oh thank God…Taylor."

"What is it?"

Summer turned the box to her, showing her the contents—which, shocking both of them, was empty. "Did you think to check the box?!"

"It's empty? How is that possible? Where did the ring go?!"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Summer felt close to tears again. Taylor saw this and wrapped her best friend in a tight hug.

"We'll find it. With Ryan helping, I'm sure that we're bound to be able to find it soon. If not, we'll just stay late and we'll search the building for it. I promise."

Summer burst into a fresh round of tears at how nice Taylor and Ryan were being to her. Taylor just hugged her, trying to tell her that everything was going to be fine. She only hoped that what Taylor was saying was the truth.

* * *

Ryan was finding being the go between guy a little tiring. Seth had no clue that Summer was the reason that the ring was missing and Summer had no clue that Seth as proposing in approximately 30 minutes. He was trying to keep from finding out while trying to get Taylor alone again.

"Dude, what are you doing?! I told my dad I was going to do it soon! What am I going to do?" Seth groaned, burying his head in his hands. "All I have is this cheap ass ring. God, she is never going to say yes."

"I'm just…trying to find Taylor. You're not the only one with problems," Ryan said, his teeth clenched as he collapsed on a chair.

"Well, my problem is more important. She's going to keep saying no to moving in with you. You two could be married and she still wouldn't want to live with you. I mean, I don't really blame her. I've lived with you and I can tell you…." He saw the look that he was getting from Ryan and decided it would be best to stop talking. "But really, I have the bigger problem."

"I don't know what you're going to do, Seth."

"Oh, she's coming back, stop talking about it!" Seth said, panicking.

He watched as Taylor and Summer walked back towards them, an upset look on both their faces. He didn't think anything of it, because honestly, he had about 15 minutes to think of some sort of excuse to not propose to Summer that night.

This was turning out to be a bigger disaster than he thought.

* * *

Sophie giggled softly as she looked down at the pretty ring on her finger. She had found it in Summer's purse and she thought it was the prettiest ring she had ever seen. It was just like Mommy's…engagement ring. Her mother loved that ring, almost as much as she loved Daddy.

Sophie looked next to her, where her neighbor Sawyer sat. He smiled at her and she gave him a wide grin back. At six years old, Sophie had decided that she was going to marry Sawyer; he seemed to have agreed with this, considering he's the one who put the engagement ring on her finger.

Taylor had told her that meant someone was engaged and gonna get married. Well, she had more overheard the conversation. She smiled to herself, thinking how nice it would be to get married to Sawyer.

"What do we do now?" Sawyer questioned, tilting his head to look at Sophie.

She shrugged her small shoulders. "We have to plan a wedding!"

"Oh." Sawyer wrinkled his nose. "That's a girly job though."

"Fine, I'll get Taylor and Summer to help me plan my wedding!" Sophie huffed, standing up and stamping her foot. Maybe Sawyer wasn't the best choice for a husband.

* * *

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" Summer groaned, resting her head on the table.

Taylor tried to reassure her with a small pat on her back. "It'll work out fine, Sum. I know it will."

"He obviously spent so much money on that ring. How could I be so stupid!?"

"You're not stupid. I'm sure he'll understand when you explain it to him. You're pregnant…you forget about things all the time. It's definitely a legitimate excuse."

"That's not the point, Taylor," Summer said, glaring at her best friend. "I just…."

"Taylor! Summer!" Sophie skipped over to them. "I have a question."

"What is it sweetie?" Taylor questioned, turning her attention to the little girl. Sophie was a welcome distraction for a few minutes.

"Will you help me plan my wedding to Sawyer? We just got…" she thought for a minute, obviously trying to think of the word. "Engaged!"

Summer let out a small groan. She loved Sophie, but that was the last thing she wanted to hear about at the moment. She didn't even want to hear the word engagement for a long time.

Sophie frowned at Summer, looking at Taylor, who shrugged her shoulders. "She's having a bad night, sweetie. Of course we'll help."

"Yay!" the little girl exclaimed, jumping a little. "I hafta tell Sawyer."

That was when Taylor saw it. The ring. The engagement ring was on Sophie's finger. She practically leapt from the chair, trying to chase after Sophie. Unfortunately, the little girl was small and she was able to move through the crowd of people faster than Taylor was able to keep with her.

And then Ryan got in the way. He stood in front of Taylor, grabbing her by the arms. "Listen, Taylor, we really need to talk. I want to know why you said no again."

"Ryan, this isn't the time."

"That's what you've been saying all day…."

"Ryan! Sophie has the ring and just lost track of her," Taylor groaned. "All because you wanted to talk. You're silent half the time and you decided to want to talk now?"

He groaned. "How was I supposed to know?"

"We have to find Sophie right now before she loses the ring."

* * *

Seth was admitting defeat. He had tried to think of excuses, but he had nothing. He was going to have to propose to Summer with a plastic ring and have her most likely say no to him. God, this was not how he had expected the night to go.

Maybe it was a possibility for him to still get out of the proposal. He could tell Summer to fake sick and tell his dad that he had to take her home. It was perfect! He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before.

That was when he saw his dad take the microphone on the small stage. He panicked. His dad was at least ten minutes earlier than he said he was going to. He should have had more time to escape than this.

Why had he ever gotten the idea to propose to Summer like this? It was all because of their coffee car moment. He had wanted to recreate that feeling but this time around, he definitely wasn't feeling the same he had been then.

He waved his hands at Sandy, hoping that his father would get the message. He could only hope that his father could read his signals.

"Could my son Seth and his girlfriend Summer please come up on the stage?"

Seth gulped. Apparently, his dad wasn't so good at reading the hand signals. He grabbed Summer's hand, who had a look of confusion on her face. There was no stopping it now.

He was going to have to propose to her, even with a cheap, 25 cent ring. He was not looking forward to what Summer was going to say to him. As he saw his dad signal something from behind the stage, he realized that his dad (probably with Ryan's help, the stupid guy always had to give his input) had decided to surprise him with a coffee cart to propose to her.

This was going to be one interesting proposal.


End file.
